A Failed Escape
The Ancient Art of Selling Out
by Stormgod

The Lowdown:
10 Tracks, Playing Time: 30:51
Self-Released/Failure Records

I've had the privelige of seeing A Failed Escape perform live, and they never fail to impress. This Logansport group leans heavily on their influences while pushing the border between genres. The riffing at times is reminiscent of Pantera, but there are obvious punk influences as well. All in all, I'd have to say that this disc is what the bastard child of Pantera, System of a Down, and the best of punk would sound like. There is a somewhat cynical attitude in the songs, as evidenced by 'We'll Never Be Famous' and 'Chia Jesus (The Pottery That Saves),' but this is to be expected in this style of crossover Metal. The production is harsh, but then again so is the musick. It could stand to be cleaned up just a touch, to clear up some of the excess crackling in the top of the mix. A Failed Escape is a band that will take you on a ride musickally and leave you feel violated in the best kind of way.

A Failed Escape
Feeding the Animals Plastic
by Stormgod

The Lowdown:
13 Tracks

I thought at first that I'd put the wrong CD into the player. The opening track on this album is a piece of classical guitar work; not what you'd expect from A Failed Escape at all, but therein lies the beauty of A Failed Escape: they don't want you to know what to expect, and make a point of defying expectations. Overall, Feeding the Animals Plastic is another raw mix of Punk, Metal (all sub-genres), and comedy (or cynical satire if you prefer) that delivers everything I love about AFE. If you can appreciate brutal vocals and riffs mixed in with satirical social commentary, off the wall, inexplicably placed samples and falsetto singing, you'll love A Failed Escape. In the end, A Failed Escape writes Metal for people who like to have fun, and give a big middle finger to everyone else.

A FAiLED ESCAPE-
These guys rock! They won the Aphex Entertainment Rock Wars.. they are hard core with a party edge and lots of toilet paper. You will have to come to an inside show to understand. I guarantee you will have a good time and feel revived. Some of my favorites are "Assholes Don't Die" and "Rodney's Demonic Hamster"

I remember being 14 years old, 5'6", all of 135 lbs wet, and a diehard metalhead. I remember spending a full hour and a half in the pit at the Pantera show that year, and coming out without even a scratch. Until The Mayday Metal Fest, I thought that would remain just a memory. I had thought that in this day of karate moshing and radio ready metal fans who think moshing is a form of boxing, that the "pick you up when you fall down" camaraderie of metal fans was long gone. I am happy to be wrong. April 30th through May 2nd, the Riehle Brothers Entertainment Complex in Lafayette hosted the May Day Metal Fest, and witnessed metal bands hailing from as far away as Texas, and as close as Indy. I had a blast. Many different genres of metal were represented, and I'm happy to say that there was an abundance of mutual respect. All of the bands were able to recognize the intrests they share. Heavy music, hotel trashing, and a universal love of Slayer. The crowd was treated to 7 different versions of Slayer's "Reign In Blood" by the end of the fest. The first 5 being serious covers by bands who one must assume didn't pay too close attention to each others sets, and the final 2 being parodies of the other 5 versions. Huge thanks to Bledd and A Failed Escape for the laughs! The event was put on by Michael Griffey of CraZInsane Promotions. Gary Bryant did an excellent job of running sound despite a few power supply issues. My hat goes off to him for the patience he had in dealing with 30 bands of metal musicians!

April 30th happens to be my birthday so, well, I didn't make it until Saturday. We'll just say that. I did my best to track down all of the bands that played that night though, and I was highly impressed by Chicago's Death By Design, Fort Wayne's Shroud, and of course Indy's The Gates of Slumber. I recommend them all! My apologies to the bands that played that night for the lack of coverage. Friday's lineup, in order of appearance was: Screams Go Silent, Paradigm, Death By Design, Shroud, and The Gates of Slumber.

As for Saturday and Sunday, there were a total of 24 bands who performed. Obviously, I cannot give in depth reviews of all of them, so I will just touch on them all and elaborate on the ones who stuck out the most to me.

When I arrived at 3 PM on Saturday, I was surprised to see the venue already fairly well attended, and it only got better. By the evening, it was actually uncomfortable at times, but no one was complaining. Friday and Saturday's shows were held in RB2's which is just across the parking lot from the main Riehle Bros. complex. I really liked the layout which included pool tables and a good sized concession area as well as a nice size stage. Saturdays lineup, in order of appearance was: Fighting for a Name, Tomaine, Exempt, Abyss, Salem's Childe, Odynia, Occam's Razor, Bowlscraper, Sewn Shut, Low 12, Rune (Relapse Records), Fetish Doll, and Mastodon (Relapse Records)

Fighting for a Name was on stage when I walked in so I honestly didn't get a good listen to them. Sorry guys. Tomaine caught my ear right off the bat however, due to their uncanny resemblance to the now defunct Indy band Amongst The Swarm. Their style was "deathcore", as ATS called it, and Tomaine were fairly impressive technically, especially for their young age. They gave MDMF the pleasure of Slayer's Reign In Blood for the 1st time that day, which was the 3rd time overall.

Next up was Exempt, a 3 piece band sans a singer. Their ages are 17, 19, and 20, but the talent they displayed was nothing short of impressive. They played a handful of songs that kept the audience near. With the correct singer and a little writing direction this band will quickly rise to the top of our states metal scene. The only detraction was when a member of the audience jumped on stage and grabbed a mic. I can appreciate his enthusiasm, but he didn't quite posses vocal ability equal to the bands talent. In fact it was no where near it. Regardless, I'm looking forward to great things from these guys!

Following them was Abyss hailing from Texas. They were the first of many Pantera-ish bands to play. They didn't particularly stand out, but I was enjoying their set none the less. That is, until they played Slayer's Reign In Blood. Number 2 for the day, number 4 for the weekend.

Salem's Childe played their reunion/farewell set next. They had a bit of a rough start but quickly found their groove. Overall it was a solid set for a band that hadn't practiced in over 5 months!

Much to my surprise, some of my old friends from the band Raising Able took the stage next. They have reformed, added the ex vocalist from Yeti and another guitarist, renaming themselves Odynia. The band is now what I would call metalcore and features an almost layne staley sounding double vocal attack for the clean parts. I found them to be much improved from Raising Able and I'm excited to see where they take this.

Next was Occams Razor who expertly blended Black, Prog and just straight up metal. Despite being a bit sloppy, they featured excellent screams and beautiful 3 part clean harmonies.

Following them was a band whose singer proved that being in a band makes you cooler than not being in one. Bowlscraper hails from Detroit and is another Pantera-ish metal band who's lead singer looks a lot like me. Maybe it was the fact that he was on stage, or maybe it was the fact that they were rumored to have the best weed at the fest, whatever it was he succeeded in snagging the girl I was talking to, and he didn't even have to try. Dammit. Regardless, the band rocked and were great guys as well.

If you take Fear Factory and subtract the keyboards, you would have a good idea of what the next band, Sewn Shut, sounded like. Being a FF fan, I enjoyed them. I believe they were also from Texas, and they were one of several bands to feature Latin members. It makes me happy to see diversity, and frankly, I think we need more!

Low Twelve brought their brutal, industrial sound to the stage next. Well, industrial in the sense of rhythmic, and crushing. Not electronic.

Relapse Records artist Rune were the first of the 3 headliners to play on Saturday, They are a mixture of black/death/doom metal and had keys, which I always appreciate. There is no denying the talent possessed in this band, but due to the late hour, some of their more doom songs began to drag a bit too much for me.

Next was Fetish Doll. I have to give this band respect for doing what they love, but their early 90's post glam sound didn't do much for me. I just didn't hear anything I hadn't heard before. They have dubbed themselves "the deadliest band in the world" and even announced themselves as so. I found this quite amusing considering they were, by far, the lightest band of the entire weekend.

Closing the night, at the ungodly hour of 2:45 am, was Relapse Records artist Mastodon. I must admit that I am not a fan of this band or their genre. They play a cross of Clutch and Cannibal Corpse, if you can picture that. They very graciously played a sufficiently long set and did so with all the enthusiasm of a 9 o'clock show. They were extremely tight and the talent level was high throughout the band. The crowd responded well, even when they announced that this would be their last song, really. No encore, but then again, it was 3:30am, and I was ready to go home anyway. I think we all were.

Several of the bands had invited me over to casa de Knights Inn, but I opted to make the hour and half drive home. I was thankful for my own bed and a shower, even if it did mean missing all the drunken debauchery. I heard stories of doors kicked out, bands playing in their hotel rooms, police visits, and all that great rock and roll mayhem. Next year, I'll get a hotel room. Out of bed 7 hours later, and back on the road for the hour and a half drive back to the show.

Sunday's show was held in the main Riehle Bros building. It was a 3 story open area with a HUGE stage that sat close to 7 feet off the ground. The area is a dance club/cover bar with a sand volleyball court during the week. It would have been nice if they had covered the court, but it provided for fun mosh pits in the sand. M.O.D. and Damien had both canceled prior to the show so the attendance was less than expected. M.O.D., Due to sickness. That coupled with with the much, much bigger room made the crowd look scarce, even though there were still a good number of people in attendance. Sunday's lineup was as follows: Premeditated, Suicide Dream, Scorch, Chainsnap, Victims of Chaos, Inner Rage of Emotion, Bledd, Shoat, A Failed Escape, Canula, and Shunned.

Premeditated features ex-members of both Salem's Childe and Impulse. They played a Primer 55 style rap/metal/core set and really didn't do anything that stood out to me.

Suicide Dream however, was very exciting. The band features 2 males and 2 females. The females performed awesome harmonies and handled all of the vocal responsibilities. They were very reminiscent of Lucuna Coil, but also integrated many different styles of metal, accentuated by excellent guitar work. I would have liked to have heard more keyboards, but I can't fully judge how much they intended to use since there was a technical problem and they were unable to play the keys. With a little work, they could easily become one of my favorite bands.

The second Detroit band to play the fest was Scorch. At first glance I was very intrigued by the 6 man lineup featuring 3 drummers. One behind a full, double bass kit and 2 behind toms and snares on either side of the stage. Their stage presence was excellent with both the bassist and one of the drummers jumping off the stage and into the crowd at one point. However, a gimmick and great stage presence did not make up for their extremely mediocre songs, and the fact that the extra drummers did nothing but double (and triple) the main drummer, who wasn't that good. Oh, and minus 20 cool points for the 5th cover of Reign In Blood, which precipitated another minus 10 cool points for the stage left drummers bad attitude when the crowd didn't respond.

Chainsnap are a band who started a few years ago as a cover band. Unfortunately, it shows. They performed well, but like many recovering cover bands, their originals sounded like covers.

If the christian/metalcore band Haste The Day could look past the giant pentagrams sported by Victims of Chaos, they would be proud.The very young band brought not only excellent stage presence, but very good metalcore songs. The vocalist had a strong clean voice as well as a brutal scream. With the proper money and backing, this band will be national by the end of the year.

The next 3 bands were Inner Rage of Emotion, Bledd, and Shoat. IRE and Shoat didn't incite any emotion from me with the exception that IRE made me wish the weekend was over. Bledd however, has finally won me over. Hailing from right here in Indy, they have developed a name for themselves quick, fast, and in a hurry. I was not particularly impressed by their recordings, but every time I see them live, I am more impressed. Although they were yet another Pantera-ish band, they were by far the best of them. They have strong riffs and grooves that force you to move your head. Bledd's lead singer Ray is a man after my own heart. A bit too cocky for his own good but with the balls and talent to back it up. The only detraction I heard was that their closing song was a note or too from being "suicide note pt.1" by Pantera. During the obligatory "everybody solo" at the end of their set, guitarist Dean broke into the riff from Reign In Blood which was good for more than a few laughs.

Following them was A Failed Escape. I have had a disk of theirs for probably a year now, but had yet to see them live. At this point, I had seen 21 bands and my ears were beginning to tire. They opened their set with "We'll never be famous, ever!", which consists of about 30 seconds of music and that lyric. This set the tone for the rest of their set which provided many needed laughs! I think every musician has been in this band at one point. It's what the rest of us do when practice is over, and we want to mess around. They just made a band out of it, and ended their songs with lines like "smoke crack!" and "Kill your parents". They also delivered the icing on the Slayer cake by performing their version of Reign In Blood, with a tamboreen. Well done.

Canula from Chicago brought us back to serious like a falling anvil. Really fast and really heavy. They reminded me of what Hypocrisy would sound like if they added a little grind. Very well played and crushingly impressive.

Closing the weekend, headlining if you will, was Fort Wayne's Shunned. I spent a good while with the lead singer Jon and have an enormous amount of respect for him and his band. Proof on their integrity is the fact that not only were they present to support EVERY band that weekend, they entered and exited the stage with the line "thank you for having us. We don't deserve this slot. We're just another band like you." Shunned is a 5 piece metal band, a la Sevendust meets the Deftones. They have an excellent stage presence, commendable image and are fronted by one of the best vocalists in the state of Indiana. Jon's unique clean voice is powerful and only topped by his gut wrenching scream. The only downfall that I see, is that they need a bit of work in the songwriting department. I have yet to hear that one song that gets stuck in your head. When they do write it, this band will be unstoppable. They played a short set, but rocked every minute of it.

Despite the length of the fest, this was a very enjoyable experience and I believe it was helpful in uniting the splintered metal scene in Indiana. I look forward to more shows, and more support between bands as our scene grows. Come out, become a part, and see for yourself! There more to music than what's on the radio!

"an exciting ride throughout. a very very catchy tune,
sure to be a big hit, one of the best new rock tracks,
we have heard in a long time. ya had us hooked from the
opening riff, a killer rhythm section,
. this band is the total package!

you really have something happening here!

your sound is as big as the grand canyon,
a complete breathe of fresh air. "

come on over to the great white north
canada.....eh!

len amsterdam radio.. all indie all the time
http://www.garageband.com/artist/lenamsterdamshow